Welcome to the Small Business Marketing Resources section, a curated list of the tools and resources that make our online business work. You need great tools to run a business online, and these will help you do things smarter, and faster. We have tested every recommendation and listing on this page, and have used them in the past or, in may cases, still use them today.
Some (but not all) of the links below are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a small commission from the provider. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please have the confidence that we have had great experiences with each of these companies, and regularly recommend them because they are are great resources – not because of the small commissions we get if you decide to buy. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals!
Web Page SEO Audit Report
The first thing you should do is run your website through our Instant SEO Audit tool. This is a free tool (you do have to provide your email) and gives you a power packed PDF full of information. You’ll get a full report on all SEO impact areas, and a check list of issues to resolve to improve your score (and search engine rankings).
Google My Business Audit Report
We have a great tool to quickly audit your Google My Business listing! Click here for our free GMB Audit and just like the Instant SEO Audit tool above, you’ll get a full report on important GMB ranking factors, with a list of recommendations and actions you can take right now.
Local Rank Tracking Tool For Maps
BrightLocal is our number one choice for local rank tracking! Knowing exactly where your local business ranks online doesn’t have to be complex. Cover every angle with accurate rankings for local search, maps, organic, and mobile results. Get started today for no risk with their 14-day trial!
Online Reviews & Reputation Management
The total number of reviews you have matters, especially if that number happens to be zero. Make it easy for your clients & customers to give you 5-Star reviews and outpace your competitors. Check out ReviewLead now!
Photograph / Image Editing and Optimization
Adobe Photoshop is the gold standard for professional grade features. If you can think it, you can make it with Photoshop CC, the world’s best imaging and design app. Plus, depending on the plan you buy, it can come bundled with other great Adobe products like Lightroom and Illustrator, too. Adobe Photoshop (Creative Cloud)
Pixlr is a great online image editor for basic to mid-level image and photo editing. Super easy to use, and surprisingly powerful…plus it’s FREE!
Another great online photo editor is PicMonkey. Everything you need to make your ideas come to life—photo editing, collage making, graphic design—PicMonkey’s got it.
Compressor.io is a free online tool that does one thing, but it does it really well. It’s awesome for compressing your images into a smaller file size, while maintaining a high quality look. Try Compressor.io to optimize your web images for faster download speeds.
GIMP is a free and open source image editor that works for virtually all OS types, including Windows, OS X, and Linux. It’s often called the open source version of Photoshop, with many powerful features built-in, plus a selection of 3rd party plugins for extended features.
If you’re using WordPress, try the free and award-winning Smush plugin to resize, compress, and optimize images you use on your WordPress website.
How to Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suck is a great and easy read that will really help you to make better videos for your business. You can use your iPhone and the tips in this book to do pretty much anything you need!
Make Your Website Mobile Responsive
Duda is for customers who want to keep their existing unresponsive websites, but understand the need to optimize for mobile, we have a solution. Duda’s website builder enables you to simply enter a site’s URL to automatically create its mobile-friendly version. Check out their free trial!
Instantly Increase Website Conversions
Proof is a really cool tool we’ve been using to increase conversions on websites. Easy to install and really works to convert more website visitors into signups and purchases. Check it out!
Email Lists and Email Automation
MailChimp is our favorite email marketing service. Using landing pages and opt-in’s to collect email address and connect with customers is great, but then what? Mailchimp can take your marketing to the next level. Develop email lists, setup email automation, and track conversions all within Mailchimp. Starter account is free, too!
Project Management
We use Teamwork for our own project management needs, and we love it! From one-person shops, to a marketing team, to a full blown agency, we’ve found it works great. Accelerate your team’s performance by assigning tasks, communicating and tracking progress in one place with Teamwork.
Hiring Freelancers and Temporary Workers
FreeUp recruits, interviews, and vets thousands of freelancers every month then gives you access to the top 1% of applicants. Sign up to join the FreeeUp community and make your life easier while hiring online. Gain fast access to pre-vetted freelance talent.
Keyword Research
The Keywords Everywhere tool is one of our favorites! This browser add-on can be easily installed on either Chrome or Firefox. The best part is that it shows you monthly search volume, CPC and competition data of keywords on multiple websites.
Use Long Tail Pro to find the best long tail keywords, to rank higher in Google. Discover thousands of profitable, targeted keywords and calculate Keyword Competitiveness for almost any niche.
Phone Calls, Call Tracking, and SMS
Gain full visibility into customer conversations, so that you can use that data to make intelligent business decisions. Record all inbound phone calls, track call data, get stellar reports, and instant email alerts (with recordings) after each inbound phone call. You can also send and receive SMS text messages, too!
Instant Chat For Your Website
LiveChat (60 Day Free Trial!) is the fastest way to help your customers. What better way to offer them help than through a quick chat on your website? It’s way faster than email and more efficient than phone. Don’t make your customers wait, try LiveChat now and get a 60-Day Free Trial!
Agile Alerts
Agile Alerts – the first text-to-speech alert application for Facebook pages. How does it work? Agile Alerts will call you and read your Facebook messages over the phone. Check it out to learn more!
Landing Pages
LeadPages is one of the best tools you can have at your disposal. You can use it to create high converting landing pages easily & quickly. It is loaded with awesome templates, with data and stats from thousands of other marketers using them as well. One of the most important tools in our web toolbox!
On-Page SEO
We use PageOptimizer Pro (POP) as our go-to resource for getting on-page SEO recommendations. This handy tool will assess your web page, and then look at the top competitors that are ranking for the keyword you are targeting. It quickly returns a list of recommendations that will allow you to improve the SEO on your page, and set you up to outrank your competition!
Local Citation Services
Building local citations for your business is a powerful way to broaden your reach and improve your authority. BrightLocal has a great local citation service to help you with building new citations, and also to clean up existing citations.
Digital Marketing Toolkit
SEMrush is a great digital marketing toolkit for a wide range of SEO related functions. Site audits, keyword research, and research of competitors is all possible with SEMrush. There is too much to try and type here, go check it out for yourself!
Link Building & Backlinks
Get high-quality backlinks from Link Building HQ. In SEO, backlinks and link building can be a key part of your strategy to build your brand’s online reputation and authority. With Link Building HQ, You can get white-label, industry-specific backlinks from reputable sources in a 30-day turnaround.
Stock Photos & Artwork
Adobe Stock is our go-to resource when we need a solid graphic, icon, or photo. With a huge library of top quality graphics, photos, and artwork it’s a safe bet you can find what you need on Adobe Stock. Check out Adobe Stock and see for yourself!
For a free stock photography website, we often use FreeImages. Free stock photography…enough said!
New Old Stock is an interesting and free stock photo website featuring vintage photos from public archives.
Another one of our favorite free stock photo sites is Mourgefile which features a range of stock photography and art from professional, amateurs, and working professionals, to provide an eclectic mix of files with lots of unique content.
Audio and Video Transcriptions
Rev (rev.com) is an online transcription service, which can transcribe from your audio or video file, and provide you with a Word doc of the transcribed text! They offer services starting at $0.10 per minute for basic automated transcriptions, and also offer premium transcriptions with humans listening and typing them up, along with proofreading and other add-on services. We use this for our own podcast and highly recommend them!
WordPress Caching Plugins
WP Rocket is recognized as the most powerful caching plugin by WordPress experts. Caching creates an ultra-fast load time, essential for improving Search Engine Optimization and increasing conversions. When you turn on WP Rocket, page caching is immediately activated. Check it out!
WordPress Hosting
SiteGround is our favorite hosting company for WordPress websites. Their customer service and knowledge base is some of the best we’ve experienced. Live chat and email support is extremely responsive, and solutions come quickly. If you’re looking for a company to host your WordPress websites, we recommend SiteGround.
Metaphor Creations WordPress Plugins
Metaphor Creations is one of our trusted partners for quality and functional WordPress plugins. Here is a list of our favorite plugins that they’ve developed.
- Ditty Posts Ticker Plugin (Free)
- Ditty News Ticker Plugin
- Metaphor Creations
- Post Duplicator Plugin (Free)
- Alternate Timed Content Plugin
- Alternate Timed Widget Plugin
Drop Down Notification Bars For Your Website
Start converting more website visitors in less than 3 minutes with Hello Bar. You can alert website visitors to sales, events, or promotions. You can use Hello Bar for holiday hours, announcements, news, or anything else you want to alert visitors to! Best of all, you can setup a FREE account and give it a try! Go to hellobar.com and signup!
Pop-Ups and Opt-In Boxes
To build an email list and to engage with customers, you need an opt-in form. PopUp Domination is a web based pop up creator that you can use on virtually any website, with ease. Easy to use, loaded with templates, and powerful features such as A/B testing make it essential for any business looking to engage and grow a customer base.
Plus, they offer a 60 day money back guarantee!